After winning his second Superpole of the season Friday in qualifying, Hayes took the lead at the start and never looked back.  He led all 23 race laps and crossed the finish line a comfortable 10.062 seconds ahead of Mat Mladin (No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000).  Hayes’ teammate Ben Bostrom (No. 2 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) prevailed in a thrilling race-long duel with Aaron Yates (No. 23 Brand Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) to finish third.

“I think these types of wins are rare to come by, few and far between, except for what Mat’s done the last several years,” Hayes said.  “I was fortunate.  We worked really hard; we have a really good motorcycle.  It was the right bike to be on and we made the right tire choice.  We were able to put together good laps from the beginning and I feel real fortunate to be here.  I’m sure that these guys are going to up their game tomorrow.”

Hayes won his first race of the season in May at Infineon Raceway where he broke a season-opening streak of seven straight wins by Mladin, who came up just short in his bid to win a seventh AMA Pro American Superbike Championship on Saturday.  Mladin will clinch the crown tomorrow if his only remaining challenger Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000), who is winless in his American Superbike career, doesn’t take the victory in Sunday’s final.

“Josh has been fast all weekend,” said Mladin, who is retiring at the end of the season.  “He did a great job today.  We got out to a bit of a gap so on the podium the boys have sort of quietly been trying to tell me to think about the championship in their passing comments.  Sometimes you have to just do what you have to do, but today it wouldn’t have mattered really what I did.  Even if I pushed as hard as I could, I don’t think I had anything for Josh. He was just too fast today.  We’ll try and get through tomorrow and New Jersey and that’s it.  VIR’s always a fantastic race.  I enjoy coming here and I enjoy the race track.  It’s nice to put on a good show in front of a good crowd.”

Bostrom rebounded from starting 12th after missing Friday’s Superpole to take the final podium spot.  The third-place showing was his seventh podium of the year.

“Honestly, Aaron was doing a fantastic job and once we got up into third he actually got me back,” Bostrom said.  “Fun racing today. It’s not fun from the third row, it’s hard.  I saw Holden and Hayden, and a bunch of good riders there as well, so it was pretty cool to look forward and see Mat, Josh and everybody come back and see three rows of great riders there.  I just have to step up tomorrow, obviously the boys here are out riding us and it’s time to get a little nastier off the starting line and get it up there and hold on.”

Yates swapped third place with Bostrom several times in the race and ended up finishing fourth after a great battle.  The final position in the top five also came down to a thrilling conclusion with Hayden nipping his other teammate Blake Young (No. 79 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) at the line.

Sunday’s American Superbike final is scheduled to start at 4:20 p.m. local time for 23 laps/50 miles and will close the Big Kahuna weekend.  Saturday’s American Superbike and Daytona SportBike finals will be shown tonight in a two-hour show at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) while Sunday’s premier class races and other highlights will air in a two-hour show that evening at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

Daytona SportBike Thriller

Herrin took the lead from fifth on the grid on the first lap and then had to pass Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) twice on the last lap to score his first AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL race win.  It was the third Daytona SportBike victory of the year for Team Graves Yamaha and Herrin’s first victory in AMA Pro Road Racing competition since winning in AMA Pro SuperSport at Barber Motorsports Park last year.  Bostrom won the season-opening Daytona 200 and at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in July in a pair of Daytona SportBike cameo appearances for Team Graves Yamaha earlier this season.

Herrin battled at the front of the field for the entire race but led just the first and final laps and only two others in the 23-lap race.  He charged by DiSalvo in Turn 1 on the last lap only to have the Suzuki rider retake the top spot a few corners later.  Herrin then regrouped and slipped past DiSalvo in the Turn 16 downhill run leading up to the front straight.  DiSalvo made a final move as the leaders crossed the finish line but Herrin held him off for a tight .010 of a second victory.

“At the start of the race I just had to stuff it in there,” Herrin said.  “I think I passed six guys right there.  I didn’t think I was going to make it but I did.  From there on out it was a pretty smooth race, no big moments.  I try not to be a real contact racer.  I tried to pass Jason as clean as I could and I didn’t feel any contact.  My Yamaha’s been working really awesome today and I just can’t thank my crew enough.”

DiSalvo finished second for the third time this year and scored his sixth overall top-three finish.  He charged to the lead Saturday after starting ninth after an accident in yesterday’s Superpole qualifying.

“I just felt really, really good making passes out there today, which I needed to,” said DiSalvo, who was not injured in yesterday’s spill.  “That was one of the biggest things that I focused on after yesterday, because I knew I’d be coming from ninth.  Just figuring out what I needed to do to get from ninth to first, and we did it, we just couldn’t hold on.  I knew I had the pace.  I didn’t really expect Josh to come with me, but he did and he put up a great fight at the end.  The pass up at the top of the hill was good.   I leaned on him a little bit, because at that point that’s really all I could do.  It was a good race.  Tomorrow I just hope to be one spot higher.”

Jamie Hacking (No. 88 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) finished third for his first podium result since finishing second at Mid-Ohio.

“It was a good race,” Hacking said.  “I’m still waiting for that win.  I know Josh probably feels good, it feels good to actually get a win.  It’s been a couple of years for me now.  We’re not giving up for sure.  Josh made us look bad there on the start.  He came from my row and I don’t know how he made it in there in Turn 1, but it was a hell of a ride that he did and he didn’t touch anybody.”

Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) and DiSalvo each led a race-high eight laps, with the Honda rider up front for Laps 2 through 9.  Zemke finished fourth while Steve Rapp (No. 48 Bazzaz/Pat Clark Motorsports Yamaha YZF-R6) rounded out the top five for his best finish since placing third in the Saturday final at Infineon.

The race’s only other leader was Herrin’s teammate Tommy Aquino (No. 6 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) who was uninjured when he lowsided in Turn 16 battling for the lead on Lap 15.  First-time pole-sitter Taylor Knapp (No. 54 Latus Motors Racing Buell 1125R) was also running up front when he lowsided in Turn 3 one lap after Aquino’s incident.  Knapp was uninjured.

Championship contenders Danny Eslick (No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R) and Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) never played a factor and had quiet runs to seventh and ninth, respectively.  Cardenas raced despite a broken hand from a Friday practice crash but only lost two points to Eslick after Saturday’s race.  Eslick is on top with 332 points, Cardenas in second with 330 markers and Herrin closed on the top duo in third with 291 points.

Sunday’s Daytona SportBike final is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. local time for 23 laps/50 miles and will kick off the final races of the Big Kahuna weekend.  Saturday’s American Superbike and Daytona SportBike finals will be shown tonight in a two-hour show at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) while Sunday’s premier class races and other highlights will air in a two-hour show that evening at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

Hayes turned a top lap time of 1:25.014 (95.702 mph) as the 10th and final rider to qualify in the single-bike Superpole format.  He also won the Superpole two races ago at Mid-Ohio where he went on to sweep both of that weekend’s races.  Hayes won his first race of the season in May at Infineon Raceway where he broke a season-opening streak of seven straight wins by Mat Mladin (No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000), who he edged for the Superpole Friday at 2.25-mile circuit.

“I think we left a little bit out there but it was a good lap,” Hayes said.  ”I put a lot of effort into it.  Our bike had a lot of grip and worked really well.  I did a clean lap and it was enough to nip Mat by just a small margin.  Since we pulled the bike out of the truck we’ve been pretty fortunate that it’s going around the racetrack well.  I’m having a lot of fun riding.  This has been a good race track for me.”

Mladin, who turned a lap time of 1:25.103 (95.602 mph) held the top spot until Hayes made his run. He still leads American Superbike with a series-high eight Superpoles this season.

“It was all good today,” said Mladin, who joined most of his competition in having no trouble handling temperatures in the high 80s.  “I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.  It’s been a lot worse around this place before, today’s not too bad.  The breeze is nice on the bike, we’ve had a lot worse conditions here than today.”

Jordan Suzuki teammates Geoff May (No. 54 National Guard Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) and Aaron Yates (No. 23 Brand Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) turned in a solid Superpole team performance to complete the four-rider front row.  May qualified third with a lap at 1:25.720 (94.913 mph) while Yates was fourth fastest at 1:26.126 (94.446 mph).

“I was feeling good,” May said. “We just re-analyzed some stuff.  Since Road America we’ve had a downward spiral.  This weekend we said ‘you know what, we’re going to go back to where we had this bike in the beginning of the year when we first got it.’  It seemed pretty good.  So we rolled it out of the truck and haven’t really done much since and we’re back up where I feel we should be.”

Yates is on his second straight American Superbike front row after qualifying second fastest one race ago in the Tornado Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

“It’s just like any other weekend,” said Yates, who joins his teammate May as Georgia natives. “I’m just going out there and riding the thing.  I definitely felt like the grip was down a little that time out, but we’ve made a few changes with the front of the bike.  It was sitting lower, I don’t think we quite had the load on the rear that we’ve had earlier and it was missing some traction there.  It’s like home for me, I like it hot.  I didn’t know if was going to be like this, so we’re ready.”

Larry Pegram (No. 72 Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Ducati 1098R), who won the Superpole at the Tornado Nationals and both of that weekend’s American Superbike races, rounded out the top five in qualifying at VIR.

Saturday’s first American Superbike race of the weekend is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. local time for 23 laps/50 miles.  The Big Kahuna races will be featured in a pair of same-day telecasts on SPEED.  Saturday’s American Superbike and Daytona SportBike finals will be shown that night in a two-hour show at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) while Sunday’s premier class races and other highlights will air in a two-hour show that evening at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

Wild Daytona SportBike Friday

An AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL Superpole qualifying session that was as notable for those who were not in it as the 10 riders who were saw Knapp break through for his first career top qualifying effort.  Knapp clocked in with a lap time of 1:28.233 (92.210 mph) and will share the two-rider front row with Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) who lapped at 1:28.663 (91.764 mph).

“It’s not only my first pole, but the first time I’ve ever been in a press conference,” said Knapp, who finished a career-high fifth in the Sunday American Superbike final at the Tornado Nationals on the No. 44 Taylor Knapp Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000.  “It’s really cool. I had a little spin coming out of Turn 2 or 3, the left hander, the track crowns off on the edge and I got a little wide.  It spun up and I bounced off the curb and I didn’t know if that was going to hurt me too much.  I just kept stringing the lap together the best I could and ended up on top.  Totally cool, I’m looking forward to the races.”

Zemke joined teammate Chris Peris (No. 10 Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) in giving Erion Honda its best starting positions as a team this year.

“I actually messed up the lap right at the very beginning going into Turn 1,” Zemke said.  “I went in there and my foot slipped off the shifter.  I was thinking, ‘I don’t think that thing went into gear.’  I hit the shifter again and it went into gear, but it was the wrong one.  It was first gear.  I lost a ton of time in the first segment.  I just kept my head down and got through the rest of the lap and it turned out okay for us.  Congratulations to Taylor on his first pole and it should be a good race tomorrow.”

Peris qualified third at 1:28.676 (91.764 mph) and was the only 2009 race winner participating in Daytona SportBike Superpole Friday.

“My lap was basically the same as I did in practice this morning,” said Peris, who won the Saturday final at Road America in June.  “It was nothing too hairball.  Nothing really out of the ordinary, but I wasn’t expecting to move up this far.  Everyone went a little bit slower so maybe it was a little bit better.  The bike’s working awesome, the team’s been great.  It just all worked out.”

Roger Hayden (No. 95 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) was also in season-best form Friday and qualified fourth at 1:28.682 (91.743 mph).

“The bike is definitely working pretty good this weekend,” Hayden said.  “My lap was okay. When I came across the start-finish line I didn’t expect it to be a 28.7, I felt like I left a lot of time out there.  I think it’s going to be a good race.  We’ve been going pretty good all weekend, we just have to get a little bit better.  I’m looking forward to it.  I’m definitely a lot closer to the front than I’ve been all year.  It makes the race weekend a lot more fun.”

Notable by their Superpole absence were Daytona SportBike championship leaders Danny Eslick (No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R) and Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600).  Eslick laid the bike down in the downhill section during the group session and qualified 12th, missing the Superpole round, while Cardenas suffered a lowside incident in morning practice that resulted in a fractured right hand.  After receiving medical treatment onsite at VIR, Cardenas rallied to participate in group qualifying and did well to clock in 13th quickest.

“I broke a bone in my hand,” said Cardenas, who crashed in the downhill run at Turn 15. “I made a mistake and hit a curb going downhill.  It was a big mistake, I crashed and I hurt my hand.  Off the bike, it feels okay and if I don’t move the hand, it doesn’t hurt.  On the bike the hardest thing is changing direction, and a little bit under braking, especially turning to the right side.  I will just try to deal with it, race tomorrow and do a good job.  There is not much you can do, only put ice on it.  That’s it, I think.”

Also enduring a tough day was Daytona SportBike Superpole leader Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) who was uninjured when he went off course during his Superpole run.  DiSalvo, who has a class-leading five Superpoles in 2009, will start ninth on the grid in this weekend’s dual races.  Chaz Davies (No. 57 Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R) , who struggled with mechanical problems in the morning practice session and Superpole run, will start 10th.

Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) rounded out the Daytona SportBike top five qualifiers.

Saturday’s first Daytona SportBike race of the weekend is scheduled to start at 4:10 p.m. local time for 23 laps/50 miles.  The Big Kahuna races will be featured in a pair of same-day telecasts on SPEED.  Saturday’s American Superbike and Daytona SportBike finals will be shown that night in a two-hour show at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) while Sunday’s premier class races and other highlights will air in a two-hour show that evening at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

SuperSport Practice Day

Josh Day (No. 4 Team E.S.P. Yamaha YZF-R6) could clinch the AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei East division title this weekend and was the fastest rider in Friday’s opening practice.  Day, who won the races at Topeka and Mid-Ohio, turned a top lap time of 1:29.707 (90.695 mph).

“We ended up fastest and we still have some work to do on the front end, but I was pretty happy with that time,” Day said.  “The E.S.P. guys have been working really hard and we have just been able to carry the setup that we found since Mid-Ohio and it has pretty much worked at every racetrack so far.  We have just had to change and fine tune a few things.  I am really not thinking about the championship, and trying not to.  I don’t want it to mess me up and I am just going to come out here and try and do my best and just try to stay on top.”

Day has a 45-point lead over Leandro Mercado (No. 92 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R), 126 – 81. That equates to more than a full-race lead and guarantees he will leave the Big Kahuna on top of the standings even if he fails to clinch the crown.  Even if Mercado scores all 32 available points at VIR, Day only needs to finish third or better to leave Virginia with the East title.  Mercado was 10th fastest Friday.

Sunday’s SuperSport final is18-laps for 40 miles and is scheduled to start at 3:10 p.m.

Westby Rolls In SunTrust Moto-GT Qualifying

Westby Racing riders Dane Westby and Dustin Meador (No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) continued their roll in AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT and won the pole for tomorrow’s two-hour team race at 11 a.m.  Meador turned a quick lap of 1:31.439 (88.977 mph) to qualify first overall and in the GT1 class.

“This is a good team,” Meador said.  “We are just going to keep working hard and racing hard and get our third win. I have done this kind of racing before and I like it and like running with Dane and the Westby guys.”

Championship leaders Mark Crozier and Dave Estok (No. 14 Crozier Motorsports Triumph Daytona 675) qualified second despite Crozier’s lowside during the session.  The team/owner rider was uninjured and turned the No. 14’s top lap of 1:32.638 (87.826 mph).

“We are fine and the bike is fine,” Crozier said.  “We got back going and finished qualifying and now we have to keep it clean and win a championship.”

Day and teammate Dominic Jones (No. 27 Four Feathers Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) will start third after Jones turned a lap of 1:33.787 (86.750 mph).

The No. 63 Coatzymoto International Racing Ducati PS1000LE of Fernando Ferreyra and Robertino Pietri won the GT2 pole with a lap time of 1:36.150 (84.618 mph).

The SunTrust Moto-GT race starts tomorrow at 11 a.m.